"I don't think I'm the best choice, old man."
"Of course not." Vale laughter turned to a hacking cough. ". . . come sit with me."
Dorin felt like talking with Vale always ended with him being the butt of the joke. He sat a few feet away from the old man, and took a similar position at the edge of the pool with his legs crossed.
"Only you, whose mistakes have been forgiven by the world, can understand how hard you need to fight just to survive."
Dorin felt a deep sense of unease with what Vale was saying. Part of him wanted to outright refuse, but he didn't know what Vale would do. The only good thing about this was that Dorin had found one of his ancestors.
"Tell me about your ego, what forms has it taken?"
"I have a few, including yours. What exactly are you asking?"
"Hm." Vale looked him up and down with squinted eyes. "I assumed you had one other since you became a virtue, but this could be a problem. Tell me everything."
"I have two other egos, a knife, and a trident. The first holds Eki, a fanged elk, and the other holds Jax, a shark."
"Well that's not ideal, but we can make this work with two."
"Oh and there's a bird named Anya, who's in your ego."
Vale smacked the back of his head, nearly sending him into the glowing pool. "Dumbass."
"Wh- what?" Dorin waved his arms around, trying to maintain his balance at the edge of the water.
"Your flame is being siphoned off from three different sources. Every time you open your mouth it makes it more obvious why you only have one life left."
"My flame?"
"Clueless." Vale put his hands into the water, and a whiskered fish swam into them. "Life as we know it is merely an open flame. We eat anything we get our hands on and burn it for energy, and if there's nothing around we burn ourselves, growing older as the flame runs out of fuel."
". . . Right." Dorin had no idea what he was talking about. His mind was on the potential food in the old man's hands. He had been starving ever since coming to this world.
"Let me finish." Vale gave him another smack. "Most begin their journey as a spark with the origin, which simply means that they aren't yet on the path of desire. To grow stronger, one must take life from the world, or create their own."
A few things began to click into place for Dorin. Morah had seemed much weaker than any of the other sparks he had known. If she simply wasn't able to use part of the power that came with an ego, that would make sense.
"Once you create your own life, you become a flame. The life that you create becomes connected to you, feeding off of your flame and therefore your desire." Vale placed his infinity on the fish, and the mark was applied to its body.
Vale threw the fish back into the water to Dorin's despair and it was completely still, floating on the surface. "If there is no flame to feed off of, the life you created will die, or you will become disconnected from it forever."
"So I have three ego beasts feeding off of my flame?"
"Exactly." The fish was rushed by various sea creatures, eventually pulled under the surface and out of sight. "And they will take everything you have until there is nothing left . . . unless you find other ways to feed them."
"I haven't been able to summon any of my egos."
"That's because of the rules of our pyramid." Vale put his hands back into the pond. "In a week, everyone still alive will meet at the Life Spire. There will be a tournament, after which the winner will be able to reclaim their past egos, or choose another prize."
'So you lied. There's just another risk to my life if I stay.'
"The only way you will survive the week is if you create a domain."
'Oh.' Dorin had been thinking of ways to escape the hungrier he became, but it seemed like that was no longer an option . . . for now.
The old man kept his hands in the water for a while, but nothing happened.
'The next fish he pulls out is mine, even if I have to snatch it from him.'
Suddenly the water swirled around his arm, and into his palm. The level of the pool shrunk slightly before he pulled his arm out. "First you'll need to create a domain that your beasts can live in, which from what I can tell will need to be different for each ego."
"Okay hold on a second, I need to eat something if I'm supposed to understand any of this. How am I supposed to create a domain on an empty stomach?"
"Just shut up and put your hands in the water."
Dorin's stomach quivered as he broke through the surface of the pool. The frigid water felt as though they would freeze his hands if he kept them in for too long.
"What you're looking for is a connection to the elements, the more you feel, the more you delve into your senses the easier it will be. Once you find it, pull it into your mark."
'I've done this before.'
His hand went numb before he finally felt a pulse from his mark, and the water curled around his hand just like in his first life. This time instead of letting his ego absorb everything, he let it flow into his palm. The frigid cold filled his body, and surprisingly his hunger was abated.
"Wait- How-"
"This hunger you feel is not merely the mortal need for food. I cannot claim to understand your desire completely, but right now, it would probably accept anything to keep your flame alight, and your beasts sated."
"How much will I need?"
"As much as you can take."